Judith Lief writes in the preface to Chogyam Trungpa’s The Heart of the Buddha: Entering the Tibetan Buddhist Path:

In beginning the path, we need to be willing to confront ourselves directly, without either wishful thinking or harsh judgmentalism. Through the practice of meditation, we are constantly brought back to working with what is, rather than with what might be; we are constantly brought back to “square one.” So at the heart of the very personal journey of meditation practice is the willingness simply to be who we are. It is a process of acceptance rather than one of manipulation.